After Friday night's 4-0 season-series win over BC, UMass goes up against Frozen Fenway opponent Vermont next Friday night at the Mullins Center.

photo by J. Anthony Roberts

AMHERST – All week long one wondered who University of Massachusetts coach Toot Cahoon would play in goal against Boston College.

Jeff Teglia had the huge win at Frozen Fenway. Kevin Boyle had beaten BC Nov. 5 at the Mullins Center.

So Toot thought long and hard, and watched carefully in practice, where he got his answer.

He’d start neither. Instead, he went with freshman Steve Mastalerz.

Any questions of the coach’s sanity among the regular followers of the team quickly disappeared.

Mastalerz stopped 35 shots and recorded his first collegiate shutout in only his fourth start as the Minutemen knocked off No. 4 BC, 4-0 before 5,823 fans at the Mullins Center. Had the students been on campus, the game would have been likely sold out.

Mastalerz even assisted on the first UMass goal by defenseman Connor Allen at 6:18 of the first period, the first goaltender to pick up an assist since Johnathan Quick on Nov. 10, 2006 in a 2-1 win over Northeastern.

With the win, the Minutemen captured the season series from the Eagles at two games to one. It's the first time since the 2006-07 season that they have bested BC.

Mastalerz said he learned Thursday afternoon that he was getting the start. Cahoon said starting Mastalerz had nothing to do with trying to foil the Eagles scouting plan.

“I’ll say this, he was the best goalie in practice this week,” Cahoon said. “Sometimes games and practices don’t mesh, but usually it’s a strong indicator in that position.

“We had some pretty good puck luck early in the game, and Mastalerz obviously gave us some huge saves throughout the game, particularly in the beginning of the game, when I thought BC was carrying the play.”

The turning point came when Peter DeAngelo scored a shorthanded goal to make it 2-0 at 9:17 of the second period. It was the first shorthanded goal for UMass since Feb. 13, 2009 when Will Ortiz scored one. And guess what, that was also Friday the 13th.

Danny Hobbs had gotten the puck up to Allen, who connected with DeAngelo on the 2 on 1.

T.J. Syner finished off another 2 on 1 at 9:58 to make it 3-0.

“I thought we played well with the lead, and that’s something we’ve worked hard at,” Cahoon said. "Remember a year ago, we didn't know how to play with the lead at all, and that's just a case of guys getting older."

Syner added his second goal of the game, and 11th of the year at 9:30 of the final period.

“We got beat by a team that was really opportunistic, and forced some errors by our club,” BC coach Jerry York said.

UMass killed off all six BC power plays, allowing the Eagles a total of only seven shots on the advantage.

“They had three different 2 on 1’s,” York said. “We made some mistakes, kind of like football, you get intercepted, and they go in for six.

The win lifted UMass to .500 overall, at 8-8-5. It also kept the Minutemen unbeaten at home at 6-0-3. They play home again next Friday night against Vermont.

“Our power play was indicative of our total offense,” York said.

"Blaise (assistant coach MacDonald) gave the {penalty killers), a kind of skeleton to follow," Cahoon said.

York added that he didn’t think his team was looking ahead to Frozen Fenway Saturday where the Eagles play Northeastern.

“Most of our guys have played there before,” he said.

Mastalerz made a huge breakaway save on BC's Pat Mullane in the first period. Mullane later also hit the post .

Cahoon said another factor in the decision to play Mastalerz was his ability to play the puck, which is important in trying to keep the puck away from BC's speedy and skilled skaters.

"I had a good week of practice, so I felt confident that I might get a chance," Mastalerz said. "It was a hard week of work, but I came through strong, so it was good."

Mastalerz said the most difficult part of playing against BC was "probably their power play."

"Their screens, they had (Chris) Kreider in front of me, and he's a pretty big boy. It's a challenge to get around the screens, but I fought through it."

Kreider is the first line left winger for BC, and a first-round draft pick of the New York Rangers.